We all know that there are people out here during the pandemic that committed fraud attempting to access funds for small businesses that need help. But ironically, I came across and article by Phil Muncaster that discussed a scheme that was going on for 13 years.

Four executives in Indianapolis were sentenced to over 16 years for their roles in a scheme that seemed so elaborate. But they got caught. According to the article, these four criminals worked for Banc-Serv Partners. They tricked the SBA into establishing loans for clients that they knew were not eligible.

The scheme ran from 2004 to 2017. They secured loans for numerous lenders and obtained SBA’s guarantee of the loans by deceiving the SBA on what the loans were for and hiding important facts about the borrowers.

When the loans defaulted, these criminals submitted their request to the SBA to purchase the loans and effectively shifted the financial liability to the SBA. This was a robbery and deprived many deserving businesses that needed the assistance legitimately.

Oh, I can’t go without telling who these individuals were and the sentence they received.

Kerri Agee - Banc-Serv president, founder and owner = 68 months

Kelly Isley - former COO = 57 months

Chad Griffin - former CMO = 28 months

Matthew Smith - co-founder = 46 months

Was it worth it? Nope.